Shortly after 8 a.m. Sunday [July 10], we lost the use of the only major highway serving the Olympic Peninsula.
Two weeks earlier, electrical power to the entire west end of the Hood Canal Bridge was lost. Wiring that carries 12,470 volts from the west shore to the floating section was MIA for two weeks.
Only days prior to this emergency, an inspection was done to inspect the welding done by contract to repair the numerous splits in the steel on the new west-end road deck trusses.
Two years ago, tons and tons of concrete had to be added to the west abutment in an effort to stop the west-end support for the bridge from moving away from the shoreline.
Last summer, WSDOT hired a contractor to replace almost two dozen 3-inch steel anchor cables. These cables limit the north and south movement of the bridge and help determine the stress exerted on the ends of the bridge. More than five of these cables were damaged while being installed and the bridge now leaks where it didn’t leak before. The WSDOT is negotiating or has negotiated whether to pay a reduced amount to the contractor, or to replace the cables.
Hopefully, WSDOT has been addressing more than just symptoms.
When the Hood Canal Bridge went through its major upgrade about seven years ago, the WSDOT contract went well over the $210 million bid and when the project was stopped, not finished, the WSDOT had paid out More than $500 million.
When a half-billion dollar project is stopped because it was out of control and no one even publicly questions what was left undone, I feel there has been a violation of the public’s trust.
A Blue Ribbon Report from the Washington Bridge Preservation Office exists on that subject and it weighs almost three pounds. Even that report doesn’t address if the leaking hydraulic system that holds the bridge together at the center will be taken care of.
This is just a brief list of emergency conditions that have been going on since WSDOT management decided to stop the project.
“Good enough” was apparently how WSDOT felt. Well, apparently it wasn’t and the circus has come to town yet again. Forgive me, but I am having a hard time distinguishing between circus music and the theme from “The Outer Limits.”
Dean A. Crawford
Port Ludlow
